When asked about this tweet during an appearance on Sky News on Tuesday, Mr Kawczynski said he had "got into a lot of trouble over that".

The Shrewsbury MP added: "What I would say is - and I think that people have said - really, it's very difficult for MPs to get everything across in the limited number of characters.

"What I was trying to say is I believe the United Kingdom did not benefit as much as other countries because of the huge loans we had to take out during the Second World War, which we only finished paying off in 2007.